Playing The Hero
by LadyOfGlass
Summary: Smaug wasn't the first dragon that Nori had gone up against. Nori participates in a rather odd quest to steal from a bad-tempered, fire-breathing monster, with only an ill-prepared fellow thief to help him. A story about the people who aren't heroes, and who probably won't make it into any ballads.
1. Chapter 1

**Important Notice: Though I don't know too much about this, I've been informed that dragons weren't too common in Middle-Earth. Well...if that's true, than this is AU, because I've made one up. Sorry, but it was the only story plot that Nori really wanted me to put him in. And this does feature an OC. And she is female. I don't normally go for OC stories, myself, but if you're like me, it might comfort you to know that this won't really be a romance. **

**I've got several things one the go; a Kili/OC fic, for one. And I have several stories planned that won't feature the Heirs Of Durin, because I've decided I need to break the habit of writing about them, and get back to the other dwarves. This will be about three chapters long, all-in-all, and is set pre-Hobbit.**

**Enjoy.**

It would be hard to dispute the fact that Nori was a thief, though he never thought of himself as one. After they'd all lost their home, it had been every dwarf for himself, and Nori had managed better than most.

Dori complained about Nori's choice of profession often enough, but their family had never starved, had they? Nori had helped to bring back food for all of them, until the two youngest siblings, Ori and Oddny, had grown enough to be able to lend a hand, and then he'd quietly slipped away to seek his fortune.

Well, to seek other people's fortunes.

It was better when you only had yourself to fend for, and only had to watch your own back. Although, right now, Nori wasn't too worried.

He had been wandering through a scrubby patch of forest, goodness knows where (Nori hoped that goodness did know where, because he certainly didn't), when all of a sudden he'd seen a flickering of flames between the trees.

Getting hungry, and now decidedly lost, Nori ambled closer and to take a look and see if there was any food (or valuables) lying around unattended.

A small fire crackled of a small clearing, hemmed in by a circle of stones, and over it, impaled on a skewer that rested on two forked sticks, was what Nori guessed had once been a rabbit. So, someone was definitely spending the night here, but the clearing was empty.

They'd probably gone off to answer the call of nature, leaving their supper behind to cook. Highly irresponsible behavior, in Nori's opinion. Practically asking for someone to steal it.

He approached the fire and gently lifted the skewer off the forked sticks. The rabbit, by now, looked rather on the overcooked side, and Nori wondered how long it had been left unattended for.

"Disgraceful..." he remarked, perhaps a little unwisely "All burnt and black..."

He didn't say anything else, because he heard a sound, coming from somewhere behind him. It was a quiet, subtle sound, and if the wind had been whistling between the trees a little more loudly, Nori probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

But he did hear it, and since it was a sound that is almost impossible to forget, instantly froze.  
It was the gentle, metallic sound of a sword being pulled from its sheath.

Nori stayed very, very still, but his mind was racing. He was standing directly in front of the fire, which meant that unless he jumped really high...

No, a straight forward dash wasn't an option. Now that he was listening very hard, Nori could hear stealthy crunch of footsteps getting closer.

Then came a soft grunt of exertion, and the hiss of metal slicing through the air.

Nori turned around very quickly, dropping the skewer and reaching down to pull out two of his largest knives. He got them up and out just in time, and was rewarded by a clash of steel as his attacker's sword was deflected.

The impact made both of them stagger back, and they stood a few wary feet away from each other, catching their breath.

Nori took this opportunity to get a good look at who had attacked him, and was...quite surprised.

Another dwarf, which he hadn't been expecting at all, and not one that Nori had seen before, either. This dwarf's face was long and sharp, and fair hair hung in several braids past their surprisingly narrow shoulders. After noting this, Nori quickly looked up and then down and..

...yes, a female dwarf, definitely.

She was wearing a dark brown tunic, over a longer blue one, and leggings that looked as if they'd recently become acquainted with both a mud puddle and a thorn bush. Someone with less of a survival instinct than Nori might have spent time noticing that this particular dwarf was on the good looking side, in a sharp, pointed sort of way.

But Nori was much more interested in the large sword that the dwarf was holding.

It wasn't a dwarvish sword, certainly, as it was clearly much too big for any sensible dwarf to use. From what Nori could see, if it was placed with its tip to the ground, the hilt would be about level with his shoulder.

It was a cumbersome, inelegant looking weapon, and it was clearly only by bracing her feet and gritting her teeth that its owner could lift it all. But she was holding it now, the decidedly sharp blade quivering a foot from Nori's face.

"What was that about?" Nori asked, holding his knives ready in case they were needed later on, and trying to sound innocent and offended.

"You tried to steal my supper," said the stranger, and as she lifted her face to stare at him accusingly, Nori noticed that her eyes were very dark.

"I don't know why it means so much to you," Nori said, not terribly diplomatically "It's practically burnt to a crisp."

The dwarf looked from him to the rabbit, and the corners of her mouth twisted up into a smile. She reversed her grip on her weapon, and plunged it point first into the ground.

"Fair enough," she said, leaning on the sword in a casual fashion "I'm no cook. Can you do better?"

Nori paused in the act of warily sheathing his knives.

"What?"

The dwarf lifted a few small bundles of fur from where they'd been slung over one shoulder, and held them up for Nori to see.

"I've caught two more," she said "If you can cook them for me properly, you can have one for yourself, and you can share my fire."

Though Nori would have been more than happy to make off with all three rabbits and keep them for himself, he had to admit that it was a good arrangement. He wasn't bad at setting traps and snares, but he wasn't confident in his ability to catch anything tonight.

And on a dark, cold evening, a fire was a good thing to have, and if there happened to be any goblins or creatures of that sort wandering around, Nori had to admit that company would be welcome.

Besides, his friend Bombur had taught him how best to cook rabbits, a few years before.

"Alright," he said, nodding "I'll do it."

"Good," said the dwarf, her smile now looking rather relieved "They call me Ranka, by the way."

"Nori," said Nori, catching the rabbits that his new acquaintance tossed him "At you service."

Preparing supper took less time than Nori had expected, since Ranka offered to help him skin the rabbits, which lead to an impromptu race to see who could skin faster. When they'd finished (both bleeding a little from various small cuts, since it's unwise to try and rush when you're using a very sharp knife), Nori searched around until he found a few edible herbs to use as seasoning.

After they'd cooked for more or less the right amount of time, Nori passed Ranka her portion of rabbit, with a certain air of smugness, and they sat by the fire, eating.

"This is good," mumbled Ranka, her mouth full "You can cook."

"Better than you, by the look of it," Nori said, with his customary politeness "Do you usually eat burnt food?"

"I don't usually cook in the first place. I don't make camp in the wilderness very often, see, and there's plenty of places to get food in villages. What about you?"

Nori felt an unpleasant chill run up and down his spine, which was what usually happened when anyone began to ask him slightly more personal questions. Even harmless questions tended to make him feel uncomfortable, because they might very well become less innocent ones like: 'Where were you two days ago at precisely half an hour past noon?' or 'Where have you hidden the money, you little dwarvish bastard?'.

"Oh, like you said," he replied, suddenly very interested in his food "There's lots of places to get food..."

"Or to steal it. Though you don't just steal suppers, do you?"

Nori looked up, very slowly, and stared at Ranka, in surprise.

"Come again?" he managed.

Ranka spat a small rabbit bone into the fire, and then leaned back, grinning.

"Oh, so I was right," she said, and Nori was annoyed by the conversational way in which she spoke "I had ten gold coins in a bag tied to my belt. I want them back, please."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Nori, resorting to blatant lying.

"Don't be an idiot. I want my money," Ranka said, before touching her hip with one hand "And my dagger, too. I didn't notice that one."

Nori sighed, but Ranka's absurdly large sword was lying on the ground beside her and though she clearly wasn't very skilled with it, he didn't really like the idea of getting into a scrap.

He pulled a small bag made of green cloth from where it had been tucked away upon his person, and tossed it to Ranka, and then repeated the process with a dagger in a shoddily made sheath.

"I was just borrowing them, really," he said, feeling the need to give some kind of explanation.

"Stealing is stealing," said Ranka, checking to see if all her coins were there.

Nori nodded, swallowing a final bite of meat and then wiping his greasy fingers on his leggings.

"That reminds me," he said, staring into the heart of the fire as he spoke "That knife that I lent you to skin the rabbits...if it's not too much trouble, do you think you could give it back?"

Nori didn't look at Ranka, but he heard a sharp intake of breath, and then a muttered curse. His knife landed with a thud in the grass beside him, and he smiled.

"And I thought I was doing so well," said Ranka, after a moment, and when Nori finally looked up at her, he saw that she was shaking her head ruefully - setting her braids swinging around her shoulders.

"You did a good job of it," Nori offered, charitably, feeling oddly sorry for her "I never would've noticed, if I hadn't been expecting you to try it."

"I take it you guessed, then?"

"Yes," Nori said, frowning as he tried to think of a better way to sum up his thoughts "You always seem like you're looking over your shoulder, even when you're not."

Ranka nodded, as if this made sense to her, and leaned forward to stir the dying fire back up again with a stick.

"I've been at it since...since Erebor," she said, simply.

"Me too."

The slight tension that had remained in the air all through their meal faded, and they both relaxed a little.

"So, now we've got that sorted out, can you explain your sword?" asked Nori.

Ranka glanced down at her sword, and her face went a bit red. She reached out and touched the flat of the blade with the tips of her fingers, as if to reassure herself that it was still there.

"It's my sword," she said, shrugging slightly "What else is there to say?"

"What else is there to say...?" echoed Nori, in disbelief "It's almost as tall as you are. How do you even manage to carry it around?"

Ranka half twisted away from him, so that he could see a very long sheath slung across her back.

"It's heavy," she said, when she was facing Nori again "But I'm getting used to it."

"Why do you even need it?" asked Nori, who had always considered that a good set of knives were the only tools that a thief required. He did sometimes use a mace, but he generally left that back at home with his family, as it was a bother to try and sneak around with.

Perhaps it was just the firelight, but Ranka's face seemed to change. The lines of laughter around her eyes and mouth faded and her amiable expression was replaced by a strange, intense one..

Her dark eyes fixed on a point that didn't quite exist, and the overall effect made Nori feel quite uncomfortable. He wondered for the first time if Ranka was quite sane.

"I've got a job that I have to do," she said, and every word was measured and cold "And I need a sword. A proper sword."

Nori opened his mouth to point out that with a sword that heavy, no matter how 'proper' it happened to be, the only thing Ranka would be likely to stab was her own foot, and then, with a great effort, stopped himself. He was beginning to seriously consider the possibility that perhaps Ranka was a bit mad, and in that case arguing with her would not be the wisest option.

"Right," he said, instead "That...makes sense. What's the job?"

Ranka's face split into a grin, which would have been comforting, if it hadn't been for her previous odd behavior, and she picked up her sword (letting out a little gasp of effort as she did so) and laid it across her lap.

"In a few weeks, I'm going to be rich, Nori," she said, her tone once more light "I'll have mountains of gold - enough to last me until I die."

"Mmm," mumbled Nori, trying to sound disinterested and non-committal, but he knew he would have to ask "And where are you planning to get these, ah, riches?"

And as soon as he asked, he knew what the answer was going to be. The way that Ranka had spoken of her plans...well, there was only one possibility, really. Nori felt an awful sense of dread.

She couldn't...

"From a dragon."

Ah. Right. Of course she could.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: So, I haven't updated in a while, partly due to a bit of heartbreak, and partly due to getting very busy. So, I didn't really feel much like writing, but I wanted to get back into the habit, so I wrote this chapter. It sort of reflects my mood, so if you don't like it, sorry. Hopefully I'll get out of my rut and back into the swing of this soon.**

**Yes...sorry.**

When someone tells you that they intend to steal a large amount of gold from a dragon, the right thing to say is "Oh, come off it!", perhaps while you chuckle, knowingly. This is the standard response, unless you happen to be talking to Thorin Oakenshield, in which case it is recommended that you take him a bit more seriously.

But when Ranka said it (and she most certainly was not Thorin Oakenshield), the last thing that Nori wanted to do was chuckle.

"So, is this quest of yours, it's the, ah, Big One?" he asked, after a long moment.

"No," Ranka said, hastily "No, not this time. This is a younger dragon - as smaller one."

"Oh, alright," said Nori, with a certain air of gloom "So the dragon you intend to get burned to a crisp by is a completely different fire breathing monster."

Ranka nodded, not looking too bothered by the prospect of being reduced into a small pile of cinders.

"I don't intend to get burned into anything," she said, giving Nori an unpleasantly bright smile "I've heard that there is a dragon up North, that's been taking livestock. I'll kill it, and steal its treasure."

"Kill it? What - by yourself?" said Nori, beginning to hope that his companion was playing an elaborate trick on him "Look, Ranka, I can understand wanting the treasure, but there are plenty of less dangerous ways to get gold."

"This isn't about gold!" Ranka snapped, with a sudden ferocity that made Nori flinch away from her.

He was still trying to place exactly what was really unnerving about the way that Ranka acted. It wasn't madness, or at least not the normal kind, but there was definitely something there...

"It's not?"

Ranka pressed her hands to her head, her long fingers twisting into her hair and then fluttering across her skin. Nori heard her take a few deep, harsh breaths, and then she looked up - her dark eyes and sharp face suddenly looking very old.

"Do you have any family, Nori?" she asked, quietly.

Nori blinked, taken aback by this question, and not sure where the conversation was heading anymore.

"A mother, yes," he said "And two brothers. And a sister."

"Not got a father, then?"

Nori sighed. Dori had always given strict instructions to all his younger siblings to avoid this particular subject, but he wasn't in the mood to try and be evasive about it.

"I've got one," he said, looking at the glowing red logs of their fire intently "But he never stayed long enough to know about me. My mother lead a very interesting life, you see, and, well...Dori thinks that maybe Ori and Oddny, the youngest, had the same father. But not the rest of us."

He heard Ranka clear her throat in an uncomfortable fashion, and the soft crackle of dead leaves as she shifted position.

"Yes. Right," she said, after a minute or two "But, when you think about your family, and about the Lonely Mountain, and all those who...never left it...and what you do...do you ever feel guilt?"

Nori stayed very still for a moment, because he knew exactly what Ranka was referring to. That ache in your chest, that nothing could ever take away, and that you could never quite leave behind.

Nori could remember running towards the gates, with the air full of smoke and screams, and he could remember seeing the dead and the dying everywhere. Many dwarves had died that day, and Nori hadn't.

And Nori hadn't.

And what had he done afterwards? He had stolen, and cheated, and even if he told himself that that was just another way of surviving, it did no good.

No good. Hah.

"You have felt it, haven't you?" Ranka asked, distracting Nori from his thoughts, and when he looked up he saw that she was staring at him in that odd, intense way, again "Because I have. I can never stop feeling it. What am I? Nothing. Not a warrior. Not of noble blood. A thief, and not the best thief, at that. And everything...everything and everyone...they're all behind me. All following me."

"And?" said Nori, a tad gruffly, trying unsuccessfully to muster a proper air of indifference.

What she was saying...yes, he knew the feeling very well. A thief shouldn't be able to feel guilt, but that doesn't mean that a thief can't.

You have to keep running. You have to always keep going. Always keep trying to keep the pain away.

The light from the fire was reflected in Ranka's pepper black eyes, and Nori wondered if guilt and the horror of knowing how far you'd fallen could really drive you halfway to madness. He'd always been able to outrun feelings like that, but not everyone could run as fast as Nori.

"That can change," Ranka said "I can change it. I've got nothing left that I want to steal, really. I've been a thief for so long, that there isn't anything left. Nothing at all. But slaying a dragon...that's what heroes do. Kill a dragon, become a hero, and I won't be just a thief anymore."

She looked at Nori expectantly, as if waiting for some sort of response, but Nori was still trying to sort things out. He could understand wanting a dragon's hoard. And he could sort of understand how Ranka felt about being a thief. To a certain kind of dwarf, that could be difficult.

But being a hero...that was a little too much. Nori had never had much patience for listening to songs about heroes, but from what he could remember, they rarely survived all the way to the last verse.

And what was the point of slaying dragons, destroying evil, and doing similarly ill-advised deeds if you never lived to enjoy the aftermath of your actions?

Guilt could work in interesting ways on different sorts, and from what Nori could tell, it had given poor Ranka some kind of delusional mania.

Well, he wouldn't wish that on anyone, or at least on any other dwarf, and Ranka had, up until then, been quite likeable. But this whole business seemed like it might turn nasty, and Nori wasn't about to get involved.

"So, you intend to, ah, slay this fearsome beast and become a hero?" he asked "Is that it?"

Ranka nodded, and her braids jerked and bobbed around her shoulders. She looked a little anxious now, as if she hadn't actually meant to say quite as much as she had.

"Yes, that's it. And if you're a hero, you have to do the job with a sword," she said "A real sword."

"A real sword," Nori repeated, dully, looking at the ludicrously large weapon that was still lying across Ranka's lap "Right, well, I hope that...it ends well for you. Now, by the look of it, it's far too late at night - no, far too early in the morning for this sort of talk..."

Ranka nodded then opened her rather small pack, and pulled out a slightly tattered blanket, which she spread on the ground. She lowered herself down onto one elbow, then looked back at Nori, her strange, focused expression gone and her face once more friendly and open.

"Not a very dwarvish thing to say, that," she remarked, laying her sword beside her blanket, with care, before rolling onto her back "I thought weren't supposed to mind talking through the night."

Nori, using his own pack as a pillow, tried to get comfortable on the hard ground.

"That doesn't mean we have to," he said "Are you up for keeping watch, or should I?"

He heard Ranka's dismissive snort come from the other side of the fire, and a rustle as she switched positions, probably also trying to find the least painful position in which to sleep.

"Don't bother," she said, her voice now slightly muffled "Anything that wants to attack us can just..."

Nori waited for a few minutes, in case Ranka was going to finish her sentence, but after awhile he realized that she'd fallen asleep. He sat up, very slowly, and saw that his companion had curled up with one arm flung out across the ground. She was grasping her sword tightly, her fingers curled tightly around the grip and the hilt touching her cheek.

Nori felt suddenly very sorry for her.

How old was she? Ranka didn't look any older than him, but her beard, which she'd braided back into her hair, was quite full, and there were webs of fine wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. Everything about her was starting to look like a complicated puzzle, and Nori really hated puzzles.

Well, she was too young to die on a quest that she didn't even need to complete, certainly.

Nori sat and thought about Ranka, heroes, and dragons for so long that he didn't even realize when his musings melted away into dreams, and then, all too soon, it was morning.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Well, Nori and Ranka wouldn't leave me alone, insisting that I finish their story before I write anything else. Well, there will be at least one more chapter before the end, but here's the next installment. I hope it's alright.**

**And, a word of advice: Never Watch Nostalgia Critic Videos While Writing Hobbit Fanfiction.**

Nori drifted awake with an unpleasant feeling that something very important and not very nice had happened. He clambered to his feet and winced as he remembered exactly why he liked to avoid spending the night on the hard ground.

He felt stiff and sore, and not particularly inclined to be optimistic. And then he remembered his conversation with Ranka, and felt, if possible, even worse.

What a mess. What a tangled, impossible mess.

He looked around and saw that Ranka was still asleep, still wrapped tightly in her blanket and her breath coming deep and even.

Nori spent a few industrious minutes making sure that all his possessions were tucked away neatly in his pack, and then, almost as an afterthought, looked through Ranka's bag in case she was carrying anything of interest that he could...borrow.

A tinderbox, a few round, flat stones, and what turned out to be a sling. Probably how she'd caught the rabbits, Nori thought.

Still, from a thief's point of view, it was disappointing. He left Ranka's things be, and, as he had no intention of going through her pockets, set off through the forest, humming a repetitive tune softly to himself as he went.

Maybe he would go South, Nori decided. Yes, why not? Go South, and leave Ranka to whatever unfortunate fate was in store for her.

Yes...

Nori stopped, and then folded his arms across his chest, glowering around at the world in general. This wasn't fair.

This wasn't supposed to happen to dwarves like Nori.

"No," he said, apparently addressing a nearby sapling "No, I'm not going to go back. I know how all the stories and songs about heroes go. Heroes join mad quests, and they die. They die in very painful ways, usually. I'm going to live. I'm not going back."

He waited a few moments, as if expecting the sapling to answer him, then sighed. He really hated doing this sort of thing, but there were some things you just couldn't do, and to stroll off into the sunset while Ranka got herself killed...

Well, he just hoped that word of this never got around, because if it did, he would probably end up being teased about it quite a bit. You spend years building up nice, sturdy walls of indifference and self-interest, and then they all get knocked down.

By the time Nori got back to the camp, Ranka was finally awake and coaxing a fire to life. Her hair was tousled and unbraided, and she looked as stiff and sore as Nori felt, but she seemed to be in a good mood.

"Hello," she said, pleasantly "Decided not to leave?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Nori sniffed, with as much dignity as he could muster "I had to go and um..."

"Pass water?" supplied Ranka, readily.

"Yes," Nori said, grateful that she hadn't asked why he had taken his pack with him to answer the call of nature.

"Well, now you're back, you can help me catch some breakfast," said Ranka, holding up her sling "And, if you like, you can cook it for me."

* * *

Within an hour, and after quite a bit of companionable bickering over which way was North and which wasn't, they'd left the forest, and were wandering through a landscape of rolling green hills, dotted here and there with large boulders.

"I've never really seen the attraction of so many hills," Nori remarked, pausing to lean against a handy rock and catch his breath "Mountains - fine. But these don't give you a sense of awe, and they're far from beautiful. You just scramble up them and then down, and then up the next one."

"You can't mine them, either, by the look of it," said Ranka, looking critically at the ground beneath her boots.

Nori sighed and shouldered Ranka's sheathed sword, which they had agreed to take turns carrying. Dwarves were very strong, of course, but the wretched thing was even heavier than it looked, and after carrying it for half an hour, Nori was seriously beginning to consider surreptitiously leaving it behind somewhere while Ranka wasn't looking.

He began the tedious march up to the top of the next rise, and Ranka fell in beside him, matching his step.

Nori noticed for the first time that her blue tunic was covered with carefully stitched patterns, which he couldn't quite make out.

"What're those?" he asked, with mild interest.

"They're...sayings, I suppose," said Ranka, smoothing out the fabric so that Nori could see that the patterns were, in fact, runes "Things that I need to remember, see?"

"Such as?" Nori said, willing to seize on any topic of conversation that might alleviate the boredom of the journey.

"Well...such as The Four Ms," Ranka said, grinning widely.

There was a slight pause at that point.

"Sorry?"

"You haven't heard of The Four Ms? I mine in my mine and what's mine is mine?"

Nori ran this through in his head a few times, and then nodded, slowly.

"You're from a mining family, then?"

"Yes," Ranka said, simply, looking away from Nori as they reached the top of the hill and began to stumble down the next slope "Every miner knows Mining Rhyme."

"I mine in my mine and what's mine is mine," Nori said, trying it out "No, it doesn't quite work. How about: What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine, and you'll never get it back..."

Ranka laughed, and reached for her sword, gesturing for Nori to pass it to her. When he did, she slung it across her back (staggering sideways slightly as she did so), and then gestured to the hilly landscape.

They could see, far off in the distance, a smudge of smoke and a cluster of small cottages that were all that could be seen of a village.

"What about what's theirs?" she asked.

"Oh, that'll be mine, too," said Nori, grinning "Eventually."

"But, of course."

They kept on walking, but occasionally one of them would ask the other a question, or even just begin to laugh, and neither of them found the journey particularly boring.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Well, here is the next chapter (sorry it took so long - blame my science teacher), and it still isn't the last one. Oh well. Hope it's okay.**

**The bit of Miner's Rhyme that Ranka uses in this chapter is sort of loosely nicked from a very good french song, which goes a bit like this: "If you want to marry, take my advice - don't go up so high that you can't come back down again." Or, at least I think it goes like that. My grasp of French is almost as bad as my grasp of Khuzdul.**

North and further North. The landscape that Nori and Ranka tramped through each day grew noticeably bleaker and now there was a definite bite in the air, Every night, Nori, tightly wrapped in his thick, warm cloak, went through an internal struggle as he watched Ranka shiver in her simple tunic.

The sight of her trying to force her teeth to stop chattering stirred enough sympathy in Nori's heart that he often wondered whether he should offer to lend her his cloak...but it was quite cold, and, well, Ranka was the one who had come up with this whole plan, so...

They weren't received very well in the few villages that they passed through, and on one occasion pieces of rotten fruit were even thrown at them. This wasn't terribly unusual. There were some people who...disliked dwarves quite a bit.

Still, it wasn't a very nice experience, and Nori's pride was stung when, one afternoon, a group children gathered by the roadside to laugh and jeer.

"I wonder how funny they'll find it if the dragon comes and burns down their wretched village," Ranka muttered.

"Nevermind the dragon," said Nori "If we survive this, I'll come back and set fire to their grubby little huts, myself.

"That would hardly be heroic," Ranka said, but she grinned.

They spent more and more of their time complaining good naturedly about the temperature and telling each other bits of rhyme. Ranka was very good at subtly adjusting pronunciations so as to create a more interesting poem, and had, in one particularly creative moment, managed to rhyme 'parsley' with 'mostly'.

Nori wasn't very good at all, but it was as good a way as any to pass the time.

After a while, Nori stopped counting the days that they had been walking. Dwarves could cover ground very fast when they wanted to, and they couldn't have been travelling for much more than a week, when they began to see signs of the dragon's presence in the area.

Ranka was the first to spot the patches of burnt and blackened trees, but it was Nori who found the remains of a mostly consumed cow in a farmer's field. This last discovery didn't have a terribly good effect on the two dwarves' morale, and they spent a full quarter of an hour standing staring at what was left of the mangled carcasss.

"Well, at least we're going the right way," Ranka said, at last.

"Have you got any relevant bits of Miner's Rhyme?" said Nori, because it was better than commenting on the fact that, within a few days, they could be in a similar state as the unfortunate cow.

"Um," Ranka said, frowning slightly as she thought "I've got one...but it's not exactly encouraging..."

"Go on, you may as well tell it to me."

Ranka plucked at her left sleeve, running her fingers along one pattern of stitched runes that curled across the blue fabric in a half circle.

"Don't go down so deep that you can't climb back out again. Or something like that, anyway."

"Ranka?"

"Yes?"

"You know, you were absolutely right. That isn't encouraging at all. In fact, I wish I hadn't asked."

They followed the trail of smoking ruins and missing livestock for two days, but when they stopped coming across evidence of the dragon's activities, they decided, after a brief but spirited argument, to ask for directions.

Luckily, it wasn't long before they found a farmer in the process of digging up some potatoes...

"Hello," Nori said, leaning on a fence post and speaking up a bit to try and catch the man's attention "We're looking for a dragon, and we were wondering if you've seen it?"

The farmer gave both him and Ranka a look of deep suspicion, though Nori, for one, was used to this.

"You dwarves?" the man asked, his accent so thick that Nori found himself wondering if the farmer was actually speaking Westron.

Nori mentally ran through a series of potential sarcastic responses to the man's question, but had trouble finding one that would be appropriately scathing. He put this down to spending too many nights sleeping on the unforgivingly hard ground.

"Yes, yes we are," said Ranka, pleasantly "I wouldn't worry, we aren't interested in stealing any chickens, and my friend here has assured me that any daughters that you might have are perfectly safe."

"No need to go that far," Nor grumbled, shooting her a nasty look, which she ignored "As if I'd ever bother to..."

"You're a...woman dwarf?" asked the farmer, who was watching Ranka with a marked amount of surprise.

"Something like that, yes," Ranka said, her tone now a little less pleasant "And-"

"Now, about this dragon," Nori interrupted, trying to to get the conversation going in the right direction.

Nori then watched with a mix of fascination and horror as the farmer took a few moments to consider whether or not he'd seen the large, fire breathing creature in question.

"Some 'f th' folk 'round here've said that they've seen it up there by th' river."

Nori saw Ranka frown, her lips moving slightly, and he assumed that she too was trying to sort out exactly what the man had said.

"They say it's made itself a home in a riverbank," the man said, at last, pointing off towards a distant row of pines, stretching across a rocky ridge "'F you follow this road, on through that forest there, you'll find it. Though why you'd want to 's a mystery..."

"Um, thank you," said Nori, doing his best to recall the few social graces that Dori had managed to teach him "I hope you have a good...harvest...?"

Nori had never really bothered to learn much about agriculture. But, the harvest was when you took the food out of the ground - he was almost certain of that one.

The farmer grunted something which sounded quite a bit like 'You're mad', and turned back to his potatoes. Nori and Ranka exchanged looks and small but expressive shrugs, and, after a waiting a moment to see if anything else was forthcoming, began to head in the direction that the man had indicated.

Nori had just hopped across a wide ditch and into a field that they'd have to cross in order to reach the far-off forest, and was gesturing for Ranka to pass him the sword so that she could jump properly, when the farmer called out after them

"Hey! What d'you call a woman dwarf, anyway?"

Ranka paused in the process of handing the sword to Nori, and turned to stare blankly back at the man. On the opposite side of the ditch, Nori frowned as he considered this. Neither spoke for a minute, but at last it was Ranka who answered.

"We call them 'dwarves'," she said, in a mystified tone that implied that she had no idea why anyone would ask a question with such a painfully obvious answer.

Ranka ignored Nori, who had, after a rather sheepish moment, half held out his hand to help her negotiate the ditch, and jumped across to join him.

"Shall we go find this dragon, then?" she asked.

"We might as well," said Nori, clasping his hands behind his back and trying to pretend that he hadn't offered her help at all "We've not got anything better to do, after all."


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: So, these next three chapters cost me blood. Quite literally as I bashed my head against my key board quite a lot of times while writing them. And if my sister keeps complaining about the amount of time that I spend in front of my computer, then I may just punch her in the face.**

**So these chapters will have brought about quite a few injuries. Well, as long as you like them, i guess it's okay.**

They found the first footprint on the ridge, after a good two hours of clambering up and over rocks and ledges, and Nori's stomach did an unpleasant little flip.

It would have been better if there had only been one footprint, which is what narrative conventions usually demand, because then you could laugh and make a weak joke about the dragon being one-legged. But, from where they stood, Nori could see at least two more, and he didn't feel much like making a joke about anything.

It was raining, a nasty, drizzling rain that got you wet and uncomfortable without giving you the grim satisfaction that a proper downpour could. Ranka's hair was dark and heavy with the rain, and she had to push it out of her face so that she could see the footprint properly.

She knelt down in the mud and moved her hands across the imprint in the soft, rain soaked ground, measuring it. The thing was so big that it took her a good two minutes to complete the job.

"If that's its foot," Nori began, watching her, "how large do you think the dragon itself might be?"

Ranka wiped her muddy hands on her leggings, but didn't move to get to her feet.

"I'd say that it might be...quite big, Nori," she said, not looking at him "Smaug was - is bigger, but..."

She let the sentence trail off, but Nori knew what she was thinking. He himself had never pretended that their chances of survival were good, but he'd never thought that they would really die. And now, it was becoming more and more obvious that they might.

Nori stared down at the dragon's footprint, which was even now disappearing gradually into the mud, and then he was looking at something else.

Smoke, and flames, and that terrible screaming everywhere. No matter which way you turned there was panic and death and where do you run to? Bits of stones and ash raining down...

_Dori! Dori, where are you?_

_Can't see-_

_Is that Torfi down there - no, no he's dead, don't look, Nori. Too late to help._

_Dori! _

_Which way? How do we get out?_

"Nori?"

Nori blinked, and saw Ranka looking up at him, her face pale and wet. It was raining, yes, but something about her eyes...was she crying?

Nori decided to take the tactful route and not mention it.

"Yes?" he said.

"You know...if you ran now, I'd never think the worse of you for it," said Ranka "You don't have to go any farther."

"Neither do you," Nori said, stalling for time.

"Don't try that one," Ranka muttered, glaring at him "You deserve to live."

So...she wasn't pretending anymore, either.

Nori listened to the raindrops drumming out a quiet rhythm as they rolled off the branches of the pine trees and splashed and splattered on the rocks, and he waited a while before answering.

"Maybe I do. But the thing is, Ranka, I'm not leaving. I can't, and you know that I can't. So, we'll fight your dragon, and if worst comes to worst, we'll both run."

And that was another lie, and neither of them believed it. But Nori held out his hand to Ranka, and, after a minute, she took it and allowed him to help her stand up.

"Last Dwarf Standing, then?" she asked, grinning at Nori in a way which he thought looked rather forced.

Last Dwarf Standing wasn't a tradition that was uniquely dwarvish, and, indeed, a similar arrangement tended to be made by every group of warriors preparing for battle. It was a way of officially making sure that any last messages would reach the loved ones of the fallen.

"I suppose so," said Nori "My brothers - Dori and Ori. And my mother and my sister. They shouldn't be too hard to find - I've heard that they've gone to the Blue Mountains. Tell them...tell them what happened, and that I'm sorry."

"My uncle, Orn, in the Iron Hills," Ranka said, quietly, after a minute "Tell him that I - that I'm not a thief anymore. Don't tell him I'm sorry, Nori, because I'm not."

Nori nodded - he could understand that, at least, and looked down at the slope, dotted with pines, that stretched out beneath them. From their position at the top of the ridge, he could see the river the farmer had mentioned twisting between the trees. The rain was slackening off now, but the sky was already darkening and the wind was picking up, making the two dwarves' hair and clothes whip around them.

"Do you want to fight this dragon in the dark?" said Nori, grimly "Or...?"

Ranka splashed way until she reached a large rock that jutted out at an angle from the ridgeline, and crouched down in the hollow beneath it, out of the wind.

"We can stay here, until the morning," she said, pulling her knees toward her chest and rubbing her hands together to get the blood flowing.

Nori stumbled over to join his companion, sending mud splattering everywhere, and sat down beside her, slipping his pack off his shoulder and rooting around inside it for some food. The results of this search weren't spectacular.

"There," said Nori, passing Ranka a grubby onion "There's dinner."

"Well, _thank you_," Ranka said, without a good deal of enthusiasm "Are you planning on eating any onions?"

"We've only got one," said Nori, trying to sound regretful "But I'm nobly giving up my share of food so that you won't be hungry. We heroes do this sort of thing."

Ranka pulled out her knife and cut off a large slice of onion, which she held out to Nori.

"No, I couldn't possibly deprive you," she said, grinning.

Nori sighed but took the bit of onion and shoved it into his mouth, chewing cautiously. It wasn't that onions tasted bad, exactly, but after not eating for hours...it was hard to enjoy the flavour. Ranka's fingers picked the onion apart, peeling it to pieces, layer by layer. They ate in silence, listening to the occasional patter of rain and watching as, around them, night fell.

"Ah, the joys of eating onions. My breath probably smells disgusting," Ranka said, at last, before sniffing the air "Yours too."

"I don't think the dragon will mind," said Nori, leaning back against the rock and beginning to absentmindedly rebraid his beard "And it might even be an advantage in the fight."

"You mean we can just breathe on it and it will kill it?" Ranka asked, raising her eyebrows.

"It might be worth a try."

They didn't bother to carry on with the conversation, and Nori guessed that Ranka's thoughts were full of what the next day might bring. It didn't comfort him very much to know that, not a mile from where they sat, the dragon was curled up in its lair dreaming about...whatever dragons dreamed about.

Gold, probably, Nori thought, sleepily. Well that was one thing that dragons and dwarves had in common.

But when Nori fell asleep, he didn't dream about gold or treasure, for once. No, his dreams were full of fire and smoke, and Ranka's face, pale and drawn.**  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Another chapter. I hope it's okay.**

The dragon's lair in the riverbank was easy to find and hard to miss - it was a great gaping hole, and appeared to go on for quite a while. Nori and Ranka stood on the opposite bank, both still damp and lavishly covered in dried mud.

Nori looked over at Ranka, who was eyeing the hole grimly. Her face was very white and her dark eyes were once again full of that eery intensity. She reached back over one shoulder and drew her sword, the awkward and inelegant gesture suddenly comforting Nori quite a bit.

But, watching Ranka's knuckles whiten as she gripped the weapon, Nori knew that his companion was very frightened. With good reason - Nori himself wasn't in a terribly good state, himself.

He kept on hearing things - screams, crashes of falling stone, and the roar of fire, echoing in his ears. And every time he closed his eyes...no, Nori wasn't going to think about it. He was tired, that was all. His mind was playing tricks on him.

"You take the left, and I'll take the right?" Ranka asked, quietly.

"What?"

'When the dragon comes out, you take the left, and I'll take the right?"

Nori blinked, rubbing his eyes with the back of one hand. Concentrate, Nori. Got to keep a clear head.

"I fight better on the right," he said, after a moment "We'd better change."

Ranka nodded and they switched places, feet squelching in the still wet grass. Nori drew his two largest knives, and realized how pathetically small and useless they looked. If only he'd brought his mace...

"I wish we had armor," muttered Ranka, shifting her grip on her sword.

"It just slows you down," Nori said, not completely truthfully "We're better off without it."

"Do you think we should call out or something?" Ranka asked, uncertainly "Tell it that we're here?"

Nori shrugged slightly, though he supposed that maybe they should alert the dragon to their presence. Better to get it over with.

"Hello!" he yelled as loudly as he could, cupping his hands to his mouth "Could you step out here, if you don't mind?"

"Not really heroic, that," said Ranka, softly.

"Go on, you do better."

"Once should be enough."

They waited in silence for a few minutes, listening to the wind rustle through the pine trees.

"Nori," Ranka began, after a little while, in the tones of someone forcing myself to sound conversational, "can you hear that noise?"

"You mean that rumbling noise that sounds as if something down that hole is moving? Yes, I can hear it."

"Oh. Good. So it's coming, then."

Instinctively, they each took a little step towards each other, as the rumbling sound gave way to the sound of scales brushing across the sides of, say, a tunnel. Then Nori could hear a deep hiss of breathing coming from the hole, and then...

And then the dragon emerged from its lair.

First came a long snout, and nostrils that flared as they breathed in the fresh morning air. And then the rest of the head - horribly big and covered in an armor of blue scales that glistened wet and clammy from the river's water, and a stretch of neck that swayed from side to side as the creature moved forward. Then came the forelegs and then the rest of the dragon came into view as it stepped up onto the bank across the river from the two dwarves.

Nori gritted his teeth, and he heard Ranka let out a fierce hiss of breath. Dwarves really, really hated dragons.

_Fire. Pain. Smoke._ Nori shook his head quickly, trying to get rid of the images that had flashed through his mind.

It was the creature's eyes that were bothering him the most. They were reptilian, but filled with a cunning cruelty that nori had never seen in any animal.

The dragon opened its mouth, showing the two dwarves a frighteningly large number of very sharp looking teeth.

"Well?" it said, in a rumbling voice so deep that it seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"I am Ranka, daughter of Kolli," said Ranka, raising her chin a little as she watched the dragon "And this is Nori, son of..."

"...nobody important," Nori supplied, quickly "And we've come to kill you and steal your treasure."

The dragon's lips curled back over its teeth, and it took Nori a few seconds to realize that the thing was grinning.

"I see. Two heroes. It's been so many years since a group of heroes came to challenge me," the dragon said, in a courteous tone that almost hid the slight edge malice beneath it "It didn't end well for any of them. And it won't for you, either."

Ranka shrugged, which was a difficult thing to do while holding a large sword.

"We'll see," she said, coldly, but Nori saw her blink, and heard her gasp softly.

Could she see them, too?

"But you don't really want to kill me, do you?" said the dragon, its yellow eyes full of amusement as it eyed Ranka "You don't truly believe that you can win."

"We'll see," Ranka repeated, watching the dragon steadily.

"And you have no quarrel with me," continued the creature, its eyes flickering to Nori and then back to Ranka "I never wronged your people. It is the death of another one of my kind that will help you. What good will killing me do?"

"Stop it," Nori told the dragon, trying to sound firm, and noticing that the tip of Ranka's sword was swinging back and forth as her hands shook "The point is, we didn't bring any archers with us, so if you could just come over to our side of the river, we can finish this...?"

"Do you know who I am?" the dragon hissed.

"Yes," said Nori "You're a cowardly worm who hides in a muddy, slimy little hole in the ground."

Now, this was, admittedly, one of the worst things that you can ever say to a dragon, but perhaps Nori wasn't completely to blame. Resorting to petty insults is one of the first defensive mechanisms of anyone who finds themselves standing in front of an enormous, dangerous adversary, holding only a pair of knives.

The dragon roared, making both dwarves flinch back a little, and its tail lashed from side to side, like the tail of an irritated cat might.

"Now, are you going to come over here?" asked Ranka, subtly moving into a fighting stance.

"I don't see that I have any choice in the matter," said the dragon, lifting its head slightly and opening its mouth a little wider.

Nori had been watching closely, and was expecting what came next, but even so, he was caught off guard by the speed at which the stream of roiling flames streaked through the air towards them.

Ranka threw herself one way, and Nori went the other, feeling a sudden scorching heat on one side of his face as he did so. He rolled to his feet and quickly checked to see that nothing important had been burned off. No, he'd been fast enough.

Ranka had been hampered somewhat by the weight of her sword, and she stumbled upright with some difficulty. Her sleeve was on fire, but she slapped at it with one hand and the flames flickered out.

Across the river, the dragon was laughing as he watched them. Nori saw the creature arch its neck and exhaling another flash of fire, this time towards the river.

"What-?" Ranka started to say, and then she stopped.

As soon as the flames hit the river, great clouds of steam billowed up and filled the air. Nori looked around quickly, cursing under his breath, but it was hopeless to try and make out Ranka through all the steam.

Where was she?

_Fire. Stumbling through the ruins. Where was Dori? A sudden sharp pain, and something hot and wet, running down his face. _

Nori staggered and almost fell, only by luck keeping hold of his knives. There was another flash of fire somewhere in the clouds of steam, and nori hoped that it had missed Ranka.

He had to tell himself where he was and, more importantly, where he wasn't.

Now, where was the dragon? Had it already reached their side of the river? Nori listened very hard, peering into the steam. He heard a soft noise of something hitting the grass a few yards off. Yes, there it was.

Nori heard the rustle of the dragon moving across the ground, and began to move as quietly as he could towards it. In a few moments, he could make out the shape of the creature through the steam - the spiny ridge of its back and the curve of its neck high up above him.

Suddenly there was a gasp and hiss of metal through the air. Nori spun around as there was a sudden flash of movement off to the left. He could just see Ranka's small figure dart forward, and her sword stab wildly at the base of the dragon's neck.

Dragons' scales were very hard indeed to penetrate, and any attempt to do so usually resulted in a shattered blade and an irritated and unharmed dragon, but dragons, especially the younger ones, were rarely completely protected by their armor.

Nori guessed by the dragon's loud roar of pain that at least one of Ranka's blows had managed to find an unprotected patch of hide. The steam was thinning now, and he could just make out one of the dragon's hind legs, not a foot from his face.

Taking a deep breath, Nori lashed out with one of his knives, and was rewarded by a trickle of thick, dark blood that ran from the small, shallow wound that he'd managed to inflict. It couldn't have felt like more than a pinprick to the dragon, but it growled in irritation and turned to slash at him with a with its claws.

Nori ducked away, not quickly enough to stop the claws ripping through his cloak and slashing a gash in his shoulder. He forced himself not to yelp - there would be time for feeling pain later.

He saw Ranka jump forward again, swinging her sword. And so it went. One of the two dwarves would slash at the dragon, sometimes managing to draw blood and sometimes only wincing as their weapons clattered harmlessly off the creature's scales, and then, while the dragon was busy trying to reciprocate, the other dwarf would attack. The dragon was large enough that they weren't doing nearly enough damage, but they weren't really losing either.

It was a pattern that Nori had seen before in many fights, but the nasty thing about patterns was that they could lull you into a false sense of security.

And what many people forget about dragons is that they're dangerous from both ends...

Nori jumped away as the dragon's jaws snapped at him, barely avoiding being caught by the rows of worryingly sharp teeth, and got to his feet quickly. He could see Ranka take a step forward to swing at the unprotected spot just behind the dragon's hind leg and...

And then it all went wrong.

The dragon's long tail lashed around faster than Nori would have thought possible, and sent Ranka tumbling to her knees. Even from where Nori stood, he could see blood begin to trickle down the side of Ranka's face.

She was alive, a fact which Nori was very grateful for, but she wasn't making any move to get up, either. Her sword was lying in the grass in front of her, and she'd pressed both hands to her left side. Nori noticed that she looked, if anything, faintly puzzled.

The dragon turned to look at Ranka, its head low as it moved towards her. The jaws opened again, and Nori knew that it was going to rip his companion apart.

Which he couldn't let happen. Nori sighed, but there was only one thing to do. Perhaps it was best to do it heroically.

"Oi!" he yelled, or something to that effect, as he ran forward, stumbling to halt a few feet away from where Ranka kneeled "What about me?"

The dragon chuckled, deep and rumbling, and Nori saw the laughter in its horrible eyes as it looked at him. Well, this is it, he thought, I'm going to die doing the right thing.

How unpleasantly ironic.

The dragon was very close now as it came towards him, close enough that Nori could count every single scale. It wasn't going to set him on fire, that would be too quick. No, Nori could see, tilting his head back to look up at it, that his death was going to a painful and bloody one.

_ Burning. All burning and bloody and the stones burying them, and..._

The great head dipped down, and Nori forced himself not to run. The hide beneath the dragon's jaw was bare and unprotected. He'd have one chance.

He could try throwing a knife, but then it might not pierce the dragon's skin. No, he'd have to wait until the dragon's head was right above him...

_Closer and closer._

_There._

Nori closed his eyes and swung his largest knife upwards. He felt the impact, heard the soft, wet sound of metal slicing through flesh, and heard the dragon's roar of agony. The knife was tugged away from him, and Nori fell to his knees, hoping that whatever happened next would be very quick and hopefully painless.

But, to Nori's surprise nothing did happen. There was a loud thump, from somewhere quite close by, and then a few indescribably organic noises, and then silence.

Nori waited for a while, then opened his eyes. The enormous bulk of the dragon lay on the grass a few feet away. It was dead.

Even if the dark red blood that was flowing from the gash beneath the creature's jaw hadn't been enough to prove this to Nori, the second gaping wound (this one in the hollow of the dragon's long neck) would have made it absolutely clear that the dragon was most definitely dead.

Nori looked at the body for a while, trying to make sure that he was, in fact, still alive and that the dragon had been successfully slain, then looked up.

Ranka was standing very close to the wound in the corpse's neck, clutching her sword. Nori noticed that both she and the blade were very much on the bloodied and battered side.

"Why did you go and get its attention like that for?" Ranka said, abruptly letting her sword drop with thump to the blood-soaked ground.

"That's a bit ungrateful," remarked Nori, feeling a sudden wave of relief wash over him "I did it because I thought it was going to kill you."

"Hah!" Ranka snorted, watching him as he slowly got to his feet.

"Speaking of which," began Nori, nodding to the gash in the dragon's neck, "what made you go and do that?"

"I thought it was going to kill you."

"Right. How's your head?"

"Not bleeding anymore."

Nori approached the dragon and tugged his knife out of it, looking away as he did so. It was red with blood, and he wiped it off on the grass. The cut on his shoulder was beginning to throb with pain, but that seemed to be the most serious injury that he'd sustained, and it was nothing that time couldn't heal.

"So, shall we go and take a look at this thing's hoard, then?" he asked, looking back at Ranka and grinning.

"We may as well," said Rank, but she didn't smile. She was still wearing that look of faint bewilderment, and she was frowning a little, as if concentrating very hard on something.

Nori saw that she had her left arm pressed very tightly and awkwardly to her left side again, and he felt a cold thread of unease begin to tangle its way around his heart.

_No. We won._

He stepped closer to her, and quickly grabbed her left arm, wrenching it away from her side.

"Don't, Nori!" Ranka muttered, slapping at his hand, but Nori didn't let go.

The cloth of Ranka's tunic was very dark and heavy, and it glistened wetly in the sunlight. Nori brushed it with his fingers, and watched with mounting horror as it stained his fingertips red.

_Not the dragon's blood._

_No._

"Ranka, show me," Nori said, his voice steady.

"Leave it alone," hissed Ranka, but she was biting down hard on her lower lip, as if to try and stop herself from gasping in pain.

"Show. Me."

Ranka opened her mouth to protest, then closed it. She reached down, very slowly, and grasped the hem of her tunic, pulling it up to expose stretch of skin just beneath her left ribs.

There was...much that wasn't there, that should have been.

Nori felt his stomach lurch and he had to look away. He looked back up at Ranka's face, and he could see the fear and panic growing in her dark eyes.

_No. This doesn't happen. We won._

****


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: So, I wrote about six different version of this chapter. I don't think anything's ever given me any more trouble. And it's the last chapter, too. Thank you for reading/reviewing.**

"It was when the tail knocked me down, I think," muttered Ranka,"I haven't - I don't want to look. Is it bad?"

"I'm, ah, not an expert when it comes to this sort of thing - I can't tell," Nori said, not being strictly honest "But we need to find help. There are plenty of farmhouses on the other side of the ridge. We'll go to one of them."

Ranka nodded and tried to take a step away from the river, but she stumbled and Nori had to grab her arm to steady her.

"I don't think I can," Ranka said, managing a small, rueful smile "You go to one of the farms and bring help back."

This was, Nori knew, the logical thing to do. But he wasn't going to do it. He couldn't.

"I'm not going to leave you here."

Ranka laughed, a harsh, rough laugh that made her gasp for breath. It made Nori flinch away from her, and frightened him almost as much as his one quick look at the...the cut in her side had.

"What can happen to me here? The dragon's dead, remember?"

Anything. Anything can happen.

"Don't argue," Nori said "Look, I think if you let me help you, we'll be able to get back up to the ridge."

Ranka hesitated, but at last she nodded and slipped her arm across Nori's shoulders, allowing him to gingerly support her.

"The sword?" she asked, looking at the weapon which still lay on the blood stained grass by the dead dragon.

"Leave it."

When they'd walked down to the river early in the morning, it hadn't taken them more than an hour to reach the bottom of the slope. The journey back up was much more difficult.

They stumbled over tree roots and tripped over rocks, and with each fall, Nori could feel Ranka getting weaker. She kept her hand pressed tightly to her left side, and Nori watched the blood well up under her fingers and knew that the bleeding wasn't going to stop of its own accord.

They'd paused about halfway up the slope to bandage the wound as best they could with Ranka's only spare tunic, but Nori had a nasty feeling that this had done very little to stem the flow of blood.

He didn't quite know what the sharp spikes on the dragon's tail had ripped open inside of Ranka, but he was starting to wonder if perhaps the injury was even more serious than he'd at first guessed.

At one point, Nori spotted a clump of plants with dark, flat leaves growing at the foot of a pine tree. He wrenched them out of the ground and held them out to Ranka.

"A friend, Oin, told me about these. They can help to clean the wound."

To Nori's annoyance, Ranka shook her head.

"No," she said, stubbornly "No herbs."

"Ranka," Nori began, beginning to feel very desperate, "if any dirt or grime gets into that- that cut, then...it'll be dangerous."

"Isn't it already?" said Ranka, laughing that harsh, barking laugh again "No herbs."

Nori sighed and nodded, but tucked the leaves into one pocket.

"We'd better move on, then," he said.

Hours passed, although Nori had no way of knowing for exactly how long the two of them had been walking for. They staggered and stumbled on, bruised and battered, and leaving a trail of blood, that rolled in droplets off Ranka's hands and dripped onto the ground behind them.

As they neared the ridge, Ranka stumbled and fell, this time rolling several feet down the slope before coming to a halt, panting and gasping in pain. Nori helped her to her feet, but didn't dare to let go of her in case she fell again.

"Use the leaves," he said, bluntly, noting that Ranka was now covered in pine needles and dirt "If the wound wasn't dirty from the start, it will be now."

"No!"

Nori felt a surge of anger - of irritation that he seemed to be more concerned about Ranka's injury than she was herself. Or maybe she was still lying to herself - telling herself that this was what heroes did.

The bright light of the afternoon was already fading into the deep blue of evening as reached the top of the ridge, and stood looking down at the rocky hillside that stretched out beneath them. Nori could see the nearest farm - a small cluster of dark shapes miles away, and his heart sank as soon as he realized how far away it was.

"Nori," said Ranka, her tone oddly placid, "how long do you think it will take us to get to that farm?"

"Oh, an hour," Nori lied "Two at most."

In order to get down the hillside, they would have to clamber over a series of large rocks - a task which would hadn't even been terribly easy on their way up. Nori went first, jumping off the first rock and landing with a slight sideways stumble on a clear patch of ground beneath it.

"Come on. Jump and I'll catch you," he called up to Ranka, before seeing her hesitate and guessing why "Look, if it was me who was hurt, I'd be asking you to catch me, alright?"

Ranka nodded and jumped, slipping awkwardly down the rockface, and leaving a streak of blood across it as she went. Nori caught her clumsily, feeling a stab of agony in his hurt shoulder as he did so, and heard her yelp in pain as he touched her left side by accident.

"There," he said, steadying her "Only...oh, about thirty rocks left..."

They picked their way along in silence, sliding and slipping from rock to rock. Every so often, one of them would lose their balance and fall, crashing painfully against the hard ground or the next rock.

The last time that this happened, they were about halfway down, and Ranka, who had been the one to fall, didn't even try to get up again. Instead, she dragged herself across the ground until her back was to the nearest rock, and leaned against it.

"I think, Nori, I'd like to try the herbs, now," she said, quietly.

Nori knelt down beside her and pulled the leaves out of his pocket. Remembering what Oin had told him, he stuffed them into his mouth and chewed for a few moments, before spitting them back out again into a ball of green mush onto the palm of his hand.

"Lift up your tunic, again."

Ranka nodded and tried to tug the cloth away from the wound, but during their journey it had become...stuck.

Ranka looked at Nori for a moment, and then pulled her knife out of its sheathe and, after taking a deep breath, began to slash at the fabric, cutting the tunic away from her skin.

From her grimaces of pain, Nori guessed that she was cutting her own flesh just as much as she was cutting the cloth, but after a few minutes of work, Ranka succeeded in being able to expose the wound.

Nori had tried to brace himself for seeing it again, but the sight of the torn and bloodied flesh still made him feel decidedly sick. He gritted his teeth and began to press the chewed bits of leaf against the gash, trying not to look too closely at it.

Ranka didn't scream, but she put her hand against her mouth and bit down on it hard, until fresh blood ran down across her wrist. Nori tried not to look at her face until he'd finished and had rebound the wound in the remains of the spare tunic.

"I don't think I can go any farther tonight," said Ranka, resting her head on the rock and looking up at the sky.

No stars, Nori noticed, in a disconnected fashion.

"Ranka, we have to keep going."

"We can wait 'til the morning, surely," Ranka said, looking up at him sharply.

_Go on. Tell me. Tell me I might not last that long._

Nori sighed and sat down beside her, resting his shoulder against hers. He was tired of running, anyway.

"Don't...don't go anywhere," he said, because he couldn't make himself say what he wanted to.

"I won't."

Little lies could make the truth easier to face. But you could trap yourself in a web of lies, and they could kill you.

"Any Miner's Rhyme for me?" Nori asked.

He heard a slight rustle as Ranka turned her head towards him, and felt her breath come in short, hot puffs against his cheek.

"Not got any left," Ranka said, her voice very quiet and the words indistinct "All gone in the blood."

Nori looked down and saw that she was right. The blood that had soaked through Ranka's tunic - that was even now soaking through to Nori's own skin - had blotted out the embroidered sayings.

"What do you think might have happened if things had gone differently?" he asked, after a few moments.

That wasn't exactly what Nori had meant to say, but he could tell from the way that Ranka raised her eyebrows that she'd understood.

"We'd have been miserable, Nori," she said, softly "Absolutely miserable."

"We might not have been. We might have been happy."

Ranka didn't answer, and Nori realized that exhaustion and blood loss had taken their toll and that she was asleep. Her breathing was so shallow and uneven that he found himself counting the time between each breath, and waiting for the next one.

He looked at Ranka's pale face, and he looked at her fair hair, now streaked with mud and grime and blood, and spread across the rock face behind her. And so Nori sat there beside her, counting her breaths until, much to his own surprise, he fell asleep.

But even in his dreams, he must have kept counting her breaths, because when he woke up, he was still doing it.

Which is why it only took him seven seconds to realize what was wrong. He opened his eyes and sat up, sore and aching all over and looked at Ranka.

She was still sitting there beside him, with her mouth slightly open and her eyes closed. There were tear tracks running through the lair of grime on her cheeks.

He hadn't noticed that she'd been crying.

Nori slowly lifted his hand and touched his friend's neck, waiting for a moment before lowering it again. He got to his feet and stretched, feeling his sore limbs complain and picked up his pack. He left Ranka's with her, and started down the hillside.

Before he'd reached the bottom, he met a group of farmers who had heard the noise of the battle, and had come to investigate. He pointed them in the right direction, and gave them a few instructions.

Then Nori moved on.

But when he met Thorin Oakenshield a few weeks later, and was given the chance to go on yet another adventure, Nori agreed at once. He agreed because he was told that his brothers were going, and he agreed because of Erebor.

But he also agreed to come because of Ranka.

When your kingdom has been destroyed and your people killed by a certain dragon, you hardly need another reason for wanting revenge.

But Nori had another reason, now, nevertheless.

****


End file.
